Consumers demand liquids, including beverages, that are flavorful and that match their expectations regarding appearance. For example, consumers typically expect a certain appearance for a soft drink—cola and root beer are expected to be brown, orange flavor typically requires an orange, opaque beverage, and lemon, lime, and lemon/lime beverages are transparent, indeed, typically, they are colorless. Consumers typically expect mouthwash to be transparent, whereas both transparent and cloudy sports beverages are considered acceptable. Tea drinks, whether dark or light in color, typically are expected to be transparent.
Consumers also demand beverages that provide health benefits. Thus, flavored and fortified waters, which often are expected to be transparent, are in demand. More importantly, the flavors of such beverages are expected to be fresh and faithfully to reproduce the expected flavor. Consumers also demand fidelity of flavor in soft drinks and other liquids.
Many flavors are used for such liquids. Typical flavors include fruit flavors, such as citrus flavors, berry flavors, and melon flavors. Other organic and botanical flavors also are popular. Such flavors include mint flavors and tea flavors.
Many flavoring compositions, both artificial and natural, have been developed to impart flavor to liquids. Typically, flavoring compositions comprise both water-soluble and water-insoluble compounds. The water-insoluble compounds in flavors typically make a significant contribution to the perception of flavor as a complete, true, faithful representation of the flavor. As the skilled practitioner recognizes, the water-insoluble compounds often introduce haze, cloud, precipitation, or a phase separation in aqueous liquids, or may form a ring on the beverage container. These phenomena may cause consumers not to accept the liquid because these phenomena often are taken as an indication that the liquid is unfit for consumption, or that the beverage has spoiled.
Therefore, attempts have been made to reduce haze and clouding. Removal of water-insoluble components from flavoring compositions, referred to as “extraction” or “washing” in the trade, typically provides an incomplete flavor. Thus, even though the liquid may not be hazed or cloudy, the product is rejected because the flavor does not mimic fruit flavor found in nature. For example, lemonade that does not contain an appropriate concentration of water-insoluble compounds tastes objectionably ‘watered down,’ or candy-like as compared to fresh squeezed fruit.
Therefore, there exists a need for a flavoring composition that provides a beverage that is both clear and full-flavored.